Three Cantatas To go

On their Tuesday concerts at Epiphany Episcopal, the Washington Bach Consort has spent the last 17 years performing all 215 of the Bach contatas. They only have 3 to go, and will finish on May 2. Then, they vow to start all over again.

Yesterday's cantata was "Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind". I did not find it particularly fulfilling, which may explain why they waited 17 years to perform it. In fact, I thought it very mundane, but just when I was about to give up on it entirely, it was time for the final Choral, which has a masterful melody. Goes to show you -- it's not over 'til the fat lady sings.

According to J. Reilly Lewis in his informative introduction, this cantata was written for Bach's first News Years Day in Leipzig, following all of the Christmas works, and was therefore supposed to be rather simple, easy to learn and so forth. I guess it was.

It was preceded by a short organ prelude, that Bach wrote when he was 15. Again, not the greatest, but intersting in that the first part was written for the pedals only. I guess it could be called the "look, ma, no hands prelude" but it isn't.